FIDO Alliance Adds Major Japanese Mobile Provider

Japan's NTT Docomo has become the first mobile network operator to join the Fast IDentity Online Alliance's board of directors.

FIDO Alliance, a consortium of key industry technology and payments companies, has been working since 2013 to eliminate the use of passwords in e-commerce as a consumer's main authentication tool. NTT Docomo will deploy FIDO authentication throughout its network, which provides services to 65 million Japanese consumers, the FIDO Alliance stated in a May 25 press release.

The FIDO authentication methods on current and upcoming Docomo devices will support a password-less ecosystem for Japanese consumers using the network.

By adding the Docomo devices and services to the FIDO ecosystem, the alliance says it now includes its first carrier billing system and first federated identity system to integrate through FIDO authentication, and the launch of multiple FIDO Certified devices, one of those with iris biometric authentication.

"Today is a historic day for the FIDO Alliance," the group's president, Dustin Ingalls, stated in the release. "We enthusiastically welcome NTT Docomo to the FIDO Alliance board of directors and recognize their outstanding accomplishment in bringing to market another innovation in FIDO authentication, while greatly improving their customer experience and end-to-end security."

NTT Docomo has enabled FIDO services for its customers using software from its partners Nok Nok Labs, Qualcomm, ARM, Samsung, Sharp and Fujitsu, the alliance said.

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